Leesburg March of Dimes Walk America 2006A
Public Service Communications Support Operation By Loudoun Amateur Radio Emergency
Service
and the Loudoun
Amateur Radio Group- This Is Another "Count On Us" Operation -
Reported and photographed by Norm Styer - AI2C
de Clarkes Gap, Virginia

The
Amateur Radio Emergency Service of Loudoun County, Virginia, under
the leadership of Emergency Coordinator, Tom Dawson - WB3AKD of Round
Hill with support from the Loudoun Amateur Radio Group provided public
service communications for the Leesburg March of Dimes Walk America
on Sunday, April 30, 2006. The Operations
Plan is available: Click
Here. and the Route Map is available: Click
Here.

Here
They Come - Move in' Out Past Check Point #1 - There Must Have Been A Couple
Hundred !!!

First,
it all started before 0800 hours on a bright
clear early Sunday morning. I cleared the top of Canby Road and
turned east on Thomas Mill as the first signals from WB3AKD
started roll in' in on 147.480 MHZ - our local LARG 2-Meter simplex
frequency. Tom Dawson was looking for LARG/ARES members to check
in and pick up their assignments.

At
Ida Lee Park on the north side of Leesburg, I found WB3AKD/Mobile and
Boyd Garrett - N5CTI of CountrySide discussing the route over
a cup of coffee. Tom told me to take Check Point 1 and provided
a detailed street map. I was to be operational by
0845 hours.

By 0830 hours, Denny Boehler - KF4TJI of
Leesburg had deployed our ARES repeater, WB3AKD/R on 443.225 MHz
with a PL of 107 Hz. Denny had set up in the middle of the route
and the repeater provided great coverage throughout the operation.